Straight outta 1996.
So of course, with the incredible backlog of toys I’ve been building up, I should talk about the guy I picked up like three hours ago.
Ah well. It’ll probably be brief.
This is Hubcap! He’s a Scout Class dude, which means he’s about $8. He transforms into a super-retro automobile. This is awesome.
You can transform him from car mode to robot mode and back in about 15 seconds, no joke. This is also awesome.
*cue Batman:TAS theme*
If I had to mentally place him, aesthetically, with a previous toy line, I’d be leaning towards Beast Wars, with his balljointy limbs and roundish robot parts. This is additionally awesome.
His open-palm hands are exceedingly awesome. He looks natural standing, instead of looking like he’s chronically tense.
And he’s Hubcap. Super awesome.
I recommend him.
I cannot stand the open-handed motif Transformers are going to. Transformers should come with hand-held weapons, and they should be able to HOLD them. It’s really the only contruction issue I have with a lot of modern TFs. Otherwise, they’re butter.
They’re more useful for emoting, and weapon-wise, it looks like we’re looking at built in weaponry being the way of the future (like the moviebots and WFC dudes).
And a lot of G1 characters, too – the Seekers, Megatron/Galvatron, Shockwave…
Hmm…did G1 have any AUTOBOTS with their weapons built in?
If you don’t count the shoulder missles, you have things like Trailbreaker’s not-hand.
Good call.
And I just remembered WARPATH’s big honkin’ chest-gun.
You say “he’s Hubcap (G1),” is that where you put him in your collection? Cos that’s what I did too… called him G2 Hubcap, sat him next to Movie Big Daddy (who’s G1 Big Daddy to me), and dusted my hands satisfactorily.
I bought this guy for a friend of mine I rarely see anymore because he and his wife moved away and now I need to buy a new one for myself :p
so he is a con man, this makes him the sawyer of the transformers universe
Looks a lot like the old Laser Rods to me, which would put him just before Beast Wars. I remember those BLOWING MY MIND when they first came out.
I am totally gettin’ this bad boy and painting most of him black, so the red showing through looks like a flame job.
If they release a black variant, he’s goin’ on the shelf next to Ransack.
I believe they said he’s going to get a Big Daddy redeco, which would be mostly black.
that will be a sweet repaint; I will totally get him, and I don’t usually get repaints.
they could also do Hubs, since they look so similar: http://www.tfu.info/1990/Autobot/Hubs/hubs.htm
they’d have to call him something else, though, since the names are so similar (it would make more sense if he was supposed to be Hubs, since Hubcap was a BB repaint, but oh well).
So want a Goldbug repaint.
oooh so he’s overrated then?
huh.. my first thought was ZZTop’s Eliminator. now THAT would be awesome especially if it had a billy gibbons inspired head
and for those young’ns who don’t know who ZZTop or Billy are…. shame on you… and if you happen to watch Bones He’s plays himself as Angelia’s father
The Eliminator was a ’33 Ford and this looks more like a ’36 (more curved grill) but close enough.
Still think Hubcap’s head looks like a Robotic Howard the Duck.
It still is an awesome little scout though – fun to tf back and forth.
maybe we should try to get ReproLables to make an Eliminator set. Gibbons is a geek.. maybe he’d join in the cause.
Rather than the B:TAS theme, I would cue the “Gargoyles” theme. That vehicle mode is a dead ringer for the Xanatos Roadster.
Picked this guy up yesterday. I’m really wondering why lately it seems like the best toys in the lines are Scout and Deluxe sized. Hubcap is just pure win. Nice looking modes, easy to get back and forth between them, just a fun toy.
I just picked him up yesterday! He’s so amazing. So easy to transform, but doesn’t sacrifice any of his articulation.
$8 !?!?!!! When I see (and buy) this guy, it’ll be September and €12.99 (about $16.95?). But for looking great and being quick to transform, I’ll pay that.
(By the way, deluxes are €17.99 – €19.99, about $25, so basically I don’t buy them any more. And Germany essentially doesn’t have sales, so there’s no hope of getting them cheaper later.)
I feel for ya man. The last dude I got was Ejector, and that was only because I really, REALLY wanted a Toaster-bot. Even other gimmick bots kind of fell beside to the wayside because of the price.
Does this TF remind anyone of the old Go-Bot “Good Knight”:
http://www.toyarchive.com/Gobots/Regular/GoodKnight.html
Obviously a different model, but the color and style are very close. I had Good Knight as a kid, and I loved the chroming on him. The TF has a much better robot mode (as does most TF’s over Go-Bots), but it instantly reminded me of Good Night.
I think he’s actually more similar to Volt: http://www.tfu.info/1994/Autobot/Volt/volt.htm
a good Knight homage would be great, he would fit into a Raiders of the Lost Ark scene with Divebomb nicely
http://www.luxematic.com/?p=225
I finally got one. He is so yay. Ty for letting me know I should look for him.
I bought Hubcap with his package-bio rival Brimstone and I have to say I prefer the chopper. It’s the best vehicle mode I’ve ever seen for a motorcycle Transformer, and he turns into such a delightfully wicked looking dude. I also like the scale of Scout-class toys turning into one-man vehicles.
Agreement to whoever said Hubcap looks like those old Laser Rods. I remember those fondly, except for when the power cord to the LED snapped.